Dead Set

[The Curmudgeon]

This has got to be a first.

Steady yourselves, ladie... ahem, gentlemen (let's not kid ourselves), for here's something new; I am going to HIGHLY recommend a British drama centered on, good lord.. Big Brother.

Yes, Big Brother, that most hated of all reality shows. Dunno if its still a big deal over your side of the pond, but in the UK its still as vile and awful (but still as talked about) as ever. And that makes it all the more surprising that the channel who hosts it lent out its set, its "stars" (former contestants) and even its presenter, to a series that attacked the show, its creators and even its audience, much in the same way George Romero commented on mindless consumerism in Dawn of the Dead.

Why the Romero mention? Well, because Dead Set is a 5 part series showing life in the Big Brother house - after the world is taken over by zombies. Put it this way - they show a bunch of drooling zombies watching Big Brother - you can't get more symbolic than that.

The novelty appeal of seeing famous familiar faces eating flesh will be lost on any non-UK viewer, but Dead Set is still a brilliantly written, often terrifying and surprisingly gory TV show. One that, by all accounts, shouldn't have been made. But thank God it did.

It's getting released on DVD, but it may surface on one of the cooler American channels (my bets would be HBO). It's scary, satirical and borderline essential. A great UK horror.

Here's a clip (oh, and the zombies in this are Dawn remake style Runners, by the way).

uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-BsE3-10ZAw&feature=channel

Definitely worth a look.

[trashcanman]

That vid is a no-go, but I'm checking this out regardless. Sounds brilliant and zombies call my name from anywhere I can find them. BB is a third-rate show here. It stays on the air, but is largely ignored in favor of shows that have established celebs. For instance:


You know you're tempted. I am.

[The Curmudgeon]

Yeah you should totally check out Dead Set, Trashy - its right up.. well, pretty much every member of this site's street.

That Celebrity Wrestling show looks God-awful, but I would check it out anyway (not surprisingly). Its a shame I don't know who the Celebrities are, but the wrestlers involved are no surprise at all. Brian Knobbs, Brutus Beefcake and Jimmy Hart are all long time friends and professional hanger-on to Hogan, so before I even watched this I knew they'd be involved somehow. And anyone with a knowledge and love for wrestling will have died a little inside to see Eric Bischoff involved in this. Sigh.

Thanks for the heads up on that, Trashy. I had never heard of it but I'll keep an eye out for it now. Yet more absolute shit I'm going to watch. Thanks for that....

[trashcanman]

That clip did a shit job of showing the celebs. Pro basketball retard Dennis Rodman, Willis from "Different Strokes" (can't remember his name), and best of all Dustin Diamond (Screech from "Saved By the Bell") are among them which is hilarious. Rodman is cheating, though because he's already done it before. Multiple times.



You'd think they'd retire "The Giant" moniker out of respect for an all-time great. He even had the same costume! What a disgrace.

I can find no American DVD release of "Dead Set". So we play the waiting game....

Wait's over. I just ordered the UK edition along with ".REC" on the cheap! God bless Amazon and my region free DVD player. You da man, C.

[The Curmudgeon]

Wow, you ordered it on the strength of my recommendation? I'm actually touched.

As for using the name The Giant being crass - WCW can beat that. When he debuted, they said he was actually Andre's SON. And people wonder why that company went bust.

I noticed Rodman, but he'll appear on any Celebrity crap going. But Willis from Different Strokes is in there? SOLD!

[trashcanman]

Nov 3, 2008 22:22:48 GMT 2 The Curmudgeon said:

Wow, you ordered it on the strength of my recommendation?

Absolutely. I was checking the pound-dollar price and Amazon had one of those deals where they toss in a related item to buy with it at a discount and I've been dying to see ".REC" anyways and the price of the deal including shipping was actually cheaper than if I got the local Hulk/Iron Man DVD's I've been drooling over together. And I can get those movies anytime. But getting my hands on international horror hotness before (almost) all of my friends online and off? I wouldn't miss that.

[PAUL ESS]

Can't we invoke some voodoo curse and resurrect Big Daddy, Kendo Nagasaki, Mick McManus and Giant Haystacks for a zombie-wrestling extravaganza? Instead of the umbrella weilding old girls in the audience bashing the wrestlers when they get slung out of the ring - they could attack still moving mouldy body parts, and therefore save valuable round time. Gotta look after those adverts..
Ken Walton could be the stiff with the whiff in the commentary box. Think what fun a tag bout would be!
Think of the possibilities. Think of the mounds of cash -dead people don't get no fees....yay!
Sky would take your hands of for it. (!)

[trashcanman]

Now that I'd watch for sure.

[The Curmudgeon]

Hey, what's with the "guest" sign in, Paul?

You're one of US, now.

[pauless]

Er...yeah. I fucked up basically. I fucking HATE technology.
I'm gonna do a Trashy and order this as well. I missed the first episode but I did see the trailer (was that REALLY Davina drenched in blood-and has she gone really hot all-of-a-sudden?) and it looked pretty promising. And to my utter shame and disgrace, I've not seen the original 'Zilla either. Just the Raymond Burr version. That, I shall remedy this week as well.

[trashcanman]

Wow. "Dead Set" is one of the greatest entries into the zombie genre I've ever seen! 100% Romero-worthy. I'm so excited that I'm even typing a review for it in spite of the fact that there's nowhere to post it on the American site. I reckon the UK site has enough buzz on it already. I just want to get it out of my system while it's still fresh in my mind and have it ready to lay upon my region 1 Amazon compatriots at the first possible moment like an undead atom bomb. You've scored my rarely (never) received "Rec Of The Year" award, C. Congrats.

[The Curmudgeon]

Wow, excellent. I think we know enough about our collective likes and dislikes enough to recommend things to each other, but it sounds like you enjoyed it more than I did. Awesome.

*SPOILER*






I liked the fact it reflected the doomed tone of the genre by having no happy ending, and I'm actually surprised Channel 4 (which "boasts" Big Brother as its biggest ratings winner) allowed such a blatant insulting take on its program. Maybe I missed the point, but didn't they show the producers cynically editing the show, and wasn't the entire point that, with Big Brother, it was equally braindead people watching as it was taking part?

[trashcanman]

That is what scored it so high with me. The blatant, uncompromising boldness of it. Something like that couldn't get a theatrical release over here, much less be shown on television. Romero has had to fight tooth-and-nail every step of the way to even get the barest financing for his films. He had to take "Dawn" to Italy and have close friend and fellow horror genius Dario Argento lend himself to it to even get started on it. I want to see this director do big things in the future. Hie special features interviews were awe-inspiring. I finished the review so here it is if you want ot check it out: a Fortress exclusive.




“What is TV anyway? It's just a big, fat arrow pointing away from the problem, especially shows like this. It's like the lead in the water pipes that sent the Romans mad."

“Dead Set” is a British television miniseries that centered around (you guessed it) yet another zombie apocalypse. The kicker is that the last vestige of humanity are the residents of the Big Brother house, a popular/inane reality show that is a cross between “the Real World” and “Survivor”. But fear not; “Dead Set” has not come to praise the reality television scourge, but to bury it. With all of it’s satirical might and balls of British steel, the show delivers on every single level. It amazingly brings silver-screen quality on a small-screen budget and it does it while delivering more gore, more cursing, blacker humor, and with as good or better-looking zombies than nearly any zombie film in existence. It’s every bit the love note to George Romero that “Shaun of the Dead” is, but this is no comedy -though there are several laugh-out-loud moments. It’s as visceral as “28 Days/Weeks Later” and it takes no prisoners. If you love zombies and have been waiting for the next project worthy of worship, consider you prayers answered.

As the latest Big Brother tenant is evicted, chaos begins to break lose in the crowd. But with thousands of people acting like fools over some game show, nobody notices until it’s too late. A handful people outside of the BB House manage to survive, but Britain is functionally destroyed in a matter of minutes. The story focuses on three groups of survivors who eventually convene. The moronic tenants -who are unaware of the scourge and think the whole situation is a practical joke by the producers- are joined by our heroine Kelly, a production assistant who manages to get into the House with the contestants, her boyfriend who links up with a survivalist and just wants to get back to her, and the evicted tenant, (Pippa) stuck in an Odd Couple situation in a room in the studio with the biggest A-hole of a producer (Patrick) on the planet. Seeing her reaction as he loudly defecates into a wastepaper basket is priceless. References and homages to Romero’s hallowed Dead trilogy come from left and right and no chance to show off shots of zombies devouring the corpses of the formerly living is missed. This is the real undead deal. The full zombie monty.

The characters are an entertaining lot who include a transvestite, a blonde bombshell (little bit of nudity there), a lonely outcast nicknamed “Gollum” by his housemates, and a guy who compulsively yells “bollocks!” the second the show goes live. The real star of the show is Patrick. The man puts on a clinic on verbal abuse that will leave you in awe of the British capacity for creative profanity. Every line a classic. It’s a stark contrast to Scottish cutiepie Pippa’s sniveling squeaks of “I don’t like it” in every situation that presents itself. There’s the usual arguing over food and all that going on in the House, and one character stops dead to marvel at his gracing of the cover of a gossip rag on a magazine rack while on an emergency outting for pharmaceuticals to save one housemate’s life. Another is first seen painting her toenails while suntanning and wondering aloud whether or not toes have bones in them. So yeah, you’ll likely be counting down ‘till zombie chow time for each vapid character. The zombies themselves are of the full-speed Dawn of the Dead remake/ 28 Days Later model and I don’t think they have been done better.

The finale is brilliant. Any other ending and I may have knocked a star off of the rating, but I will firmly declare that Romero himself could not have done any better. There is never a solid explanation for the zombie outbreak, but one tenant speculates that perhaps God is judging mankind by their pop culture and smiting them accordingly. My kind of statement. A few classic Romero lines make it into the dialogue, but I was a bit bummed that they missed an opportunity to include my favorite: “choke on ‘em!”. I was actually shouting it at the screen at one point, expecting satisfaction. But given the boldness, bleakness, and quality of “Dead Set”, this is a trespass I will happily forgive. I don’t care what kind of zombie movie you like or what your standards are, you owe it to yourself to check this out. The fact that this parade of violence and obscene language was on British television when something this unapologetically hardcore would get slapped with a NC-17 rating and effectively banned in a second over here makes me green with envy. And let’s not forget the string of amazing horror films that have come from both mainland Europe and the UK over the last decade. How’s the weather on your side of the pond, fellas?

[The Curmudgeon]

Trashy, praise gets thrown around a lot in this place (and why not? Where it's due and all that) but that is a fucking GREAT review. The more personal comments aside, it wouldn't look out of place in a film magazine. Good job, my friend.

Man, I'm glad you're in here.